Email Hosting: On Prem vs Cloud
Email hosting can be done either On-Prem or on Cloud. Hosting in Cloud has its advantages whereas, hosting on-prem has its own benefits. This article covers the advantages of both.
Email hosting is a service that differs from a free webmail account in the aspect that it is free of advertisement and specific to your domain name with added security features. There are different platforms that you can choose depending on your user requirements, to name a few, are G-Suite, Office 365, Rediff, Yahoo, Zoho.
In the current scenario, email is one of the most important and basic necessities of any organisation. You need to be well connected with your prospects and be available on mails always. Also, as we are currently facing a corona pandemic outbreak all over the globe and people are confined to their home, hence we need to be operational and functional from home as well without compromising on our productivity and overall efficiency.
Let’s understand the basic difference between two choices for email provision: Cloud and On-Premise
Advantages of Cloud Email:
In most cases, you only pay for the number of email boxes you need, scaling up quickly whenever required.
Users can access the data from anywhere, as all the data is being securely stored in the cloud.
You do not require an in-house IT person to monitor the email servers 24/7. It also helps you to invest in other resources.
You do not have to purchase servers or hardware, which can be a substantial up-front cost or pay for power and space.
The security part is taken care of by the Cloud email provider with several layers of security features.
Cloud email providers have dedicated security teams and will also take care of any technical issues.
It is generally cheaper to purchase more space as needed. With your server, you may have to upgrade and add new hard drives physically.
You do not have to set up a lot of software, hardware or software packages and not worry about renewing lots of subscriptions.
Your email will stay up even if your office network is down, which can be very handy for companies that operate in disaster-prone areas such as hurricane and fire zones.
Your email data is often backed up on the cloud servers and remains for a specific period of time, and a copy of your data stays with the Cloud Email provider, which is helpful in case any data is deleted from your end.
Advantages of On-Prem:
You have to make a one-time investment on servers which will be a one-time capital and operational cost.
It can be cheaper after the initial setup investment in servers.
It allows full control of the servers and environment.
Your email account can't be abruptly suspended.
You need an in-house IT person to monitor the email servers 24/7 and hence the maintenance lies in your hand and you need not depend on any other.
You can take backups according to your requirements anytime, and this is helpful in case you need to maintain certain compliances according to Government policies.
Though traditional, on-prem email hosting servers have their advantage, cloud email hosting is the future because of its higher security, flexibility, low set up costs and minimal downtime. Plus, there is little to no management needed from the user’s end – Service provider handles the maintenance and support and always keeps it up to date – no need for lengthy upgrades by your IT team.
Pertaining to the current scenario where people are mobile and travel frequently, it's very convenient if they have all data and documents handy, hence cloud email hosting stands out with all the features which help us to be available from anywhere in the world.
